Groundstone Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Topsail Insider Intro

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome to the Topsoil Insider podcast , where you can hear all about the businesses and events in the beautiful coastal towns of the greater Topsoil area of North Carolina

Coming Up!

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Coming up . Join me for an insightful conversation with the owners of Groundstone Brazilian Jujitsu . We'll discuss the intriguing history of Jujitsu , along with their journey and training , the classes they offer , their community outreach and the passion and discipline of their students of all ages and all skill levels .

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Groundstone, Guests, and Cohost Intro

Speaker 1 1:34

Hello everyone and welcome to the Topsoil Insider Podcast . My name is Krista and I am your host . Today I am interviewing Tulsa and Bianca Simpson . They are the owners of Groundstone Brazilian Jiu Jitsu . They have two locations One is in Sneets Ferry and they have a brand new location in Surf City , North Carolina . Welcome , Thank you so much for joining me today .

Speaker 2 1:59

Thank you for having us .

Speaker 1 2:00

Absolutely . I have a co-host for the very first time . It's my husband . His name is Michael . Are you just a little bit nervous ?

Speaker 3 2:07

I'm terrified actually .

Speaker 1 2:09

I'm bringing my husband in on this one because he has had some martial arts training in the past not Brazilian Jiu Jitsu but I thought that he would bring in a different element to this conversation , because I'm going to talk about the what , the why , the when , and then we're going to talk about the actual art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu .

What is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and History

Speaker 1 2:28

All right , I think we should probably start out with telling folks who have no idea about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu , or martial arts for that matter . Let's tell everyone what Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is specifically and how it differs from other forms of martial arts .

Speaker 2 2:44

We get this question a lot . So , covering a brief of what Jiu Jitsu is , started from Japan . They migrated into Brazil and this art was introduced to the Gracie family and the Gracie family kind of cultivated this and made Gracie Jiu Jitsu , which later spread and became Brazilian Jiu Jitsu . And what makes Jiu Jitsu different , I think , is you take out the elements of striking the things that are more violent , and that's why Jiu Jitsu is called the gentle art . It's more about body control , controlling your own body , controlling your opponent .

Speaker 2 3:18

Jiu Jitsu is not gentle in the fact we do submissions , mostly joint manipulation and different types of chokes . Traditionally we do it in our gi or kimono . But there is a lot more of a modern element with the no gi Jiu Jitsu , which is going to bring in a little bit more of wrestling and different types of submissions . So Jiu Jitsu as a whole is a modern art . Japanese Jiu Jitsu is what the Samurai's used , so it's very old . That's cool . So in Imperial Japan , when the Samurai's went away and they outlawed Jiu Jitsu as what it was then , because it was very deadly .

Speaker 4 3:54

Why oh ?

Speaker 2 3:55

Yeah , it was very deadly . So they didn't want like a coup or something like that . When the Samurai's went away , all of those arts went away , but they felt a need to bring something back for police force , military things like that . And really what they brought back was Judo , Judo . So some people say Brazilian Jiu Jitsu came from Judo . It's actually the other way around . Judo was a watered down version of Japanese Jiu Jitsu .

Speaker 1 4:18

Interesting .

Speaker 2 4:19

But that all changed when they merged and moved to Brazil . They were migrating to Brazil and there's a lot of history there , but in the 1920s , 30s , that was when the Gracie family and some of the other cousins they were practicing this art on a regular basis in the Gracie compound and kind of developed what Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is as we know it today . So basically the art was taught in homes and in families , so fathers would pass it down to their children and things like that . So it stayed alive but it couldn't be done in the public .

Speaker 1 4:51

That's really cool . That's so interesting .

Speaker 3 4:52

I'm curious about the differences you have and I honestly thought Brazilian Jiu Jitsu , you just assume it's Brazilian . I think a lot of people that really aren't familiar might think that and I'm wondering if there's really any big differences between , maybe , what the Japanese taught and do versus what the Gracie family , for example , introduced . What are the flavors of ?

Speaker 2 5:13

Jiu Jitsu . Yes , so modern Jiu Jitsu has changed a lot . Now we've got this no-gi Jiu Jitsu that seems less traditional and more modern . In the grappling world we have these huge tournaments nowadays that were not around before . So when the Gracie family was developing this , they did it in their guis and in their kimonos , because that's the way that they were taught , but there were elements of just grappling without it .

Speaker 2 5:37

When the UFC started , that's really when Jiu Jitsu hit the map and the Gracie family had Gracie challenges in different schools and different areas and things like that , and they would challenge other arts to come and fight their style , and they were very successful . So you would have karate guys or kung fu guys or samba guys or even American wrestling . Come and challenge these guys and they would do this periodically whenever people would show up whether they would show up to an academy and challenge someone or they would just put it out there hey , we'll challenge anyone , and they would offer a monetary reward , for if you beat us , then you get a thousand dollars or something like that . So when they were doing that , it started to become popular in the early 90s . And then the UFC came , so you had UFC one .

Speaker 1 6:26

That's like the cage fighting , just to be clear .

Speaker 2 6:28

Yes , yes , the ultimate fighting championship .

Speaker 1 6:30

Yes .

Speaker 2 6:31

Yeah , and some people call it the octagon or whatever . But basically the UFC was started because of this , because they were doing these Gracie challenges . So the UFC was started because they wanted to see who had the best martial art . That was the whole idea . And Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu dominated because you had this little Brazilian guy who would stop some punches and get inside and get on somebody's back and choke them .

Speaker 1 6:54

Yeah .

Speaker 2 6:55

And .

Speaker 1 6:56

I've seen that before . Yeah , that was my introduction to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu .

Speaker 2 7:01

Yes .

Speaker 1 7:01

Was watching these cage fights and just being in awe . But yeah , it was always the person that was using the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu that just dominated .

Speaker 2 7:09

Yes , and when he started Boyz Gracie , when he went and did the first UFC , he was in his , he was in his gi and the other guys were not . They were either shirtless , in some shorts and because they didn't want to be grabbed , but he went out there and as gi because that was the way they fought . So now , going back to the question of the different styles of Jiu-Jitsu , there's actually some controversy going on right now in the Jiu-Jitsu world about American Jiu-Jitsu , because that's really where it became popular . Yeah , in Brazil it was very popular , but when they brought it to America , we like to blow everything up .

Speaker 1 7:43

So we put it on TV and made it a match and spent a lot of money , and that's right yeah .

Speaker 2 7:49

So with the UFC and the popularity of Jiu-Jitsu it blew up all over the US and we have these huge productions now . The ADCC is one of the biggest tournaments worldwide and the way that the ADCC started was actually through . The Prince of Abu Dhabi loved Jiu-Jitsu , he loved grappling , and what he would do is he would hand pick the greatest grapplers to come to Abu Dhabi and fight in this tournament for him specifically , and then he would pay them a lot of money . That became big because you had these guys who were coming from all over the world coming to one place and usually they were personally invited . So then you had the greatest grapplers in the world all in one place and Jiu-Jitsu again was dominating . And a lot of wrestlers were very dominant in this because they could take you down to the ground and smash you . But Jiu-Jitsu became dominant because Jiu-Jitsu guys are not afraid of being on their backs and still attacking .

Speaker 1 8:43

Oh , interesting Okay .

Speaker 2 8:45

So the wrestlers would take them down . But the Jiu-Jitsu guys got very comfortable and they could do submissions from their back and the wrestlers were not . So it became very popular in the United States because mostly we had wrestling and that was our grappling art and when Jiu-Jitsu started coming around people were like maybe this Jiu-Jitsu thing is a little better than wrestling . So they started doing more Jiu-Jitsu and recently , probably in the last five years , Jiu-Jitsu has really blown up and really have pro athletes making money at Jiu-Jitsu .

Training with Fredson Paixão

Speaker 1 9:15

You have been doing it for a very long time . You trained for 28 years .

Speaker 2 9:20

So I have trained in martial arts for 28 years . I have trained Jiu-Jitsu specifically since 2012 , almost 12 years , gotcha .

Speaker 1 9:28

You're a black belt Correct Under Professor Fredson , and I don't want to mess up this last name . What is it ?

Speaker 3 9:33

Paishao .

Speaker 1 9:33

Paishao , I would have really messed that up . All right , and you trained under him as well ? Yes , you did . Okay , explain who he is and what it was like training under him .

Speaker 2 9:45

So Professor Fredson is from Brazil . He's from Manaus , in the Amazon . He started training Jiu-Jitsu at a local school . He did a tournament . He was invited to a tournament in Rio under Grandmaster Osvaldo Alves . He won that tournament and was then invited to come train at Grandmaster Osvaldo Alves school . Not only did he train there , he actually lived with Grandmaster Osvaldo for 10 years Wow .

Speaker 2 10:09

So he got his black belt in record time four years and that's unheard of . Typically it's 10 years is about what they say for a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu . But he was training every day , all day . 7 am he was running on the beach , he was training competing , he was beating black belts when he was a lower belt . And not only did he receive his black belt in record time , he is one of two people that have been documented that actually skipped brown belt . So he was a purple belt and won the world championship .

Speaker 2 10:36

Grandmaster Osvaldo promoted him to black belt . He came back the following year and won the world championship at black belt Wow . And he was there training and then he started fighting , doing mixed martial arts fights in Brazil and then went to Japan doing mixed martial arts fights and then came to the US . So he has a huge background of fighting since he was 16 years old and he's been professionally fighting since he was 19 years old and when he moved to the US he's been living in Las Vegas and he still lives in Las Vegas and we see him and speak to him all the time and I originally started training under his brother , iván Sakamoto , out in Las Vegas as well .

Speaker 2 11:16

No , this was in Okinawa , japan . When I was stationed there , I started training under him , I got my blue boat under him and when I came back to the US it was easier to get in touch with Professor Fredson because he was here in the US . I got in touch with him and we started a very close relationship and I've been training directly under him ever since . It is a long distance relationship because he's in Las Vegas and we're here in North Carolina Right , how does that work ? So typically we try to get him out here twice a year , okay , and we usually go see him at least once a year , and when we do that we have a very detailed training sessions . But with a long distance relationship , the great thing is we have things like WhatsApp and Facebook .

Speaker 1 11:56

Messenger and .

Speaker 2 11:56

FaceTime and all of this stuff . He has helped cultivate my training and me being an instructor through those platforms , sending me videos or doing video chats and working through techniques and teaching points and things like that Gotcha .

Speaker 1 12:11

And Bianca , tell me where you're at and how long you've been training with him .

Speaker 4 12:16

So I started training under Fredson in 2017 . And I've been under Fredson and Tulsa since I was a white belt . So now I'm six years in . I just got my brown belt this year . When I started , tulsa was a purple belt , I was a white belt , so I am actually Groundstones only homegrown female brown belt . Okay .

Speaker 1 12:37

And are you still working towards getting that black belt ? I'm a baby brown belt .

Speaker 4 12:43

I don't even want to even think about a black belt . But yeah , that's definitely the goal . But you know , you start to realize after you get different belts and you get promoted it's more of like you have to fight to keep it . It's not like , oh , I have a promotion and I can slow down . Now I feel like it speeds it up every time . Okay , Now I'm at a different level . I have to fight to keep it . Definitely in goal , black belt . But I am not looking that way anytime soon . You teach as well .

Speaker 1 13:07

Yes ,

Classes Offered at Groundstone

Speaker 1 13:12

let's talk about the different classes that you offer at Groundstone .

Speaker 4 13:16

We have adult co-ed classes and that's typically jujitsu . We also offer Muay Thai . We have homeschool and we do youth classes and we also do youth boxing .

Home School and Youth Classes

Speaker 1 13:28

I love the homeschool aspect of what you're offering , which it's once a week , that's actually up to the parents .

Speaker 4 13:34

You can opt to do once a week or twice a week , just depending on your schedule . But the homeschool slash PE class has been really great . Honestly , I didn't realize how big the homeschool community was it is . Yeah , the resources in this area are so great for homeschool . Like we're the instructors , we can provide the teaching . But I've really reached out to that community and tried to make myself a part of it so that I can really understand the needs and the wants , because our kids are in public school .

Speaker 4 14:02

So you can't thrive on a program if you're not willing to hear the other side of the consumer . So the difference between the homeschool class and the youth classes , the youth BJA classes were more strictly youth-based , strictly concentrating on our fundamentals , our warm-ups . Everything relates to jujitsu . So if it's the younger kids' class , which is our little warriors , we're looking for body control , we're looking for coordination and they've learned through play , but we have a lot more sparring time . The homeschool class is offered also as like PE right . So we do jujitsu and they learn more of self-defense , but they also get a PE time .

Speaker 3 14:42

When families start thinking about martial arts in general and they think I don't necessarily want to teach my kid to fight , how do you approach teaching a parent ? No , this is not teaching your kid to go out and bully people .

Speaker 4 14:53

Yeah , so I think that's actually a very good question . So this week we actually were talking to our students about some back-to-school readiness and , just , if you're homeschooled , just self-defense . So when you're coming into any type of martial art , the goal is not to teach you to fight and , oh , you're going to go out and pick a fight with someone . The goal is to teach you how to be humble and understand . You are gaining knowledge and you get some physical awareness , An awareness that I don't know . You have more of a confidence and we try to tell our students this is self-defense .

Speaker 2 15:28

The biggest thing with the youth BJJ kids is whether there are five to eight year olds which are little warriors , or our older kids , which are eight to about thirteen , fourteen year olds is teaching them body awareness and controlling your own body , but also controlling the other person's body . If someone's coming to attack you , it's very easy . Anyone can throw a punch , anyone can throw a kick . But being able to control yourself and then control the other person who's maybe trying to throw a punch or throw a kick at you . So a lot of things that we do is really control , and we talk about the four steps of jiu jitsu being able to take the fight down to the ground , control the person , get into a good position and then , if we have to , then we can do a submission , and the submission is just what that word sounds like . They are submitting to you . A submission doesn't mean that I'm choking them unconscious . A submissions mean that I'm putting them in a position to where they have to give up and stop attacking me . So that's the biggest thing that we teach the kids . If you're gonna do an arm bar , we're not doing an arm bar to break another kid's arm . We're doing an arm bar because we want them to stop punching us and we want them to say okay , I quit . And when they do that , typically we call it tapping right . So in class we respect the tap . So if I'm doing an arm bar and my partner taps , they're submitting to me and I let go . And on the other side , if someone puts me in an arm bar , I'm not gonna continue to fight out of it and then hurt myself because I strained my arm too much . I'm gonna go ahead and tap so that I can continue training and not be injured . So those are things that we try to teach the kids and that's part of the body awareness that we do . And then the other thing is just having the confidence of being able to engage with someone and not run away and be scared , because everyone has a fight or flight reflex . If you're , reflex when you get into some kind of altercation is to run away . That's not always a good thing , because then you turn your back and when you turn your back , bad things can happen . Or if you're just scared in a situation that may not even escalate to a physical altercation . But having the confidence to stand up for yourself is huge for kids , because when an altercation happens , typically what do they do ? They cower down . You get that flight reflex . So the fight reflex isn't necessarily I'm gonna fight you , but it's him gonna stand up for myself . So those are the things that we try to teach the kids most of the time , as opposed to just , hey , here's jujitsu , let's go , let's go spar and roll around and try to hurt each other . So that's probably what I want parents to know .

Speaker 2 17:54

And the other thing is we don't strike and jujitsu . I teach kids how to defend against strikes , but we don't teach kids how to strike and jujitsu . We have our youth boxing class for that

Youth Boxing

Speaker 2 18:04

. We offer youth boxing at our headquarters location in Sneets Ferry and that goes Mondays and Wednesdays 4 to 5pm and that is taught by coach Jason , who grew up doing Golden Globe boxing in Virginia and he's a very good coach . He's one of my blue belts . Him and his son have been training with me for years and jujitsu and I offered the opportunity for him to teach some youth boxing classes and he is focused on fundamentals as far as footwork , defense , moving properly , keeping your hands up , not getting punched , and he has been great as far as the fundamentals and we just got some sparring gear for the kids , some body pads and head gear so that they can start actually hitting each other .

Speaker 4 18:45

What age range is this ? Age range is 5 to 13 . And they Little five year olds in there . No , I'm gonna tell you you come to the youth boxing class like little kids will totally surprise you , they go for it , I bet . But they're organized and separated as they should be in stations and things like that . They are organized at like height and weight .

Speaker 1 19:11

Weight classes yeah , the kids who are doing ? Are they doing just the boxing or they do a mix of everything ?

Speaker 2 19:17

No . So a lot of the kids will do the boxing from four to five and then stay and do jiu-jitsu at 5.15 .

Speaker 4 19:23

Okay , yeah , mondays and Wednesdays 5.15 to 6.15 are the junior warriors class , so it fits a parent schedule really well . I'd say drop off and they get a break in between classes .

Speaker 1 19:35

Yeah ,

Moving up to Adult Co Ed Classes

Speaker 1 19:36

Okay , you started age five and then you have your youth , from , you said , eight to 14 , what age or when do you know when a child is ready to move up into the adult groups ?

Speaker 4 19:46

I would definitely say that's something . It's their skill set and their maturity level . They're taking things a lot more serious . They're not goofing off anymore and you start to notice that they're like they're beating everybody in the class . You can just tell like they're ready to be around more mature people and take it more serious , Like they're out of the adolescent mental stage when they come into the class .

Speaker 1 20:08

Okay .

Speaker 4 20:09

And that's basically it . And we recognize that , especially when they're hungry for competition , like we have a student right now . He wants to be a world champion and we started noticing he needs to come out of the junior's class because he is beating everybody in the junior's class . So he's in the adult class and he's . How old is he ? He is 16 . And he's beating most of them too . Oh , wow .

Speaker 2 20:29

He beats up adults daily .

Speaker 4 20:32

And he takes it very serious .

Speaker 1 20:33

That's really cool to hear . I hope that works out for him . So , how long is it ? What belt is he at

Belt System

Speaker 1 20:39

?

Speaker 2 20:39

He's a blue belt , so the kids have their own set of belts . We follow the international Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation rule set . So in that rule set you have children's belts and then you have adult belts and once you reach 16 years old you're eligible for adult belts , which his next belt level would be a blue belt . He was an orange belt .

Speaker 3 21:00

Speaking of belts , all martial arts have some kind of logic . Like that you progress through a belt structure In Jiu-Jitsu . What is the progression ? And with the belts , is there a focus on certain types of ?

Speaker 2 21:13

skills . So , yes , every martial art . I've done several martial arts and there are always belt levels and I think that's just a good way to put a metric on a skill set , because if we didn't have a belt level , there would be no difference between a white belt and a black belt when you're standing next to each other until you actually start doing something and then you're like we're not the same . The belt system in Jiu-Jitsu is basically like the belt system in Judo and as far as skill sets and things like that , there are different academies and affiliations that have certain techniques or certain things that you have to do . Maybe it's an attendance thing , maybe it's a technique thing . You have to know , like these specific set of techniques to get your first stripe and these 10 techniques to get your next belt level .

Speaker 2 21:58

At Groundstone we don't really measure it that way because we believe everyone kids and adults , everyone's journey is individual . So I've never created a curriculum that says you have to know these specific things to get this promotion . Every belt level has four stripes before the next belt . For our children it's typically three months to get a stripe , possibly two stripes , and that's with them coming regularly , taking it seriously . Some children do not receive their stripe at three months . Some children may receive three stripes at three months . It just varies .

Speaker 2 22:31

And we do it that way because it's not fair to the child or even an adult to get promoted at the same time with the same stripe as someone who's not taking it as seriously , because then it's , why am I putting all this effort in when he's just gonna get the same thing I got ? And some children may have really good skill sets and it becomes really surprising because their behavior doesn't show that . But then when you have them actually do it and you're like they weren't paying attention , but then they start to do it and you're like I didn't even think he was listening , but he knows all of what I just said . So to measure it in the type of metric of skill set or attendance , I don't think it's fair to all the children . It may seem fair on paper but it doesn't seem fair to the individual journey of each child or even adult

Muay Thai

Speaker 2 23:17

.

Speaker 4 23:17

I like that we also offer Muay Thai .

Speaker 2 23:19

So Muay Thai is offered on Tuesdays and Thursday nights and coach Sebastian is our Muay Thai coach right now and he's got a background in Muay Thai . He's also one of our purple belts in Jiu Jitsu . On Tuesdays we teach what we call take down . Tuesday , that's in the gi , we have a Jiu Jitsu class from 630 to 730 , focused on take downs , from 730 to 830 , we change and do Muay Thai . Thursday is the same schedule , but we do no gi Jiu Jitsu first and then transition into the Muay Thai .

Speaker 2 23:48

Muay Thai as an art is from Thailand .

Speaker 2 23:51

It's also known as Thai boxing , and Muay Thai is pretty violent with its strikes .

Speaker 2 23:56

If you've ever seen someone from Thailand , they are pretty small islanders , but their punches and kicks and strikes with their elbows and knees are very violent . The idea of Muay Thai is to get a little bit closer than you would with like regular boxing or kickboxing , and you're using elbows and knees a lot more . So there's there's strikes are gonna be more with the shin and the knee and then with the forearm and the elbow , as opposed to just punching someone with your fist . So a lot of the boxing fundamentals that you typically see in Western boxing are still applied when it comes to footwork and defenses and things like that , but we're adding the element of knees and elbows and then adding the element of violently striking with your entire body as opposed to just throwing out a jab . The difference with Muay Thai is mainly elbow and knee strikes , and that a lot . In going back to the UFC and mixed martial arts fighting , there's a lot of elbow and knee strikes and those those come from Muay Thai ,

Adult CoEd, Women’s Class w/Childcare and Visitors Passes

Speaker 2 24:51

gotcha .

Speaker 1 24:52

Okay , so your adult co-ed is $110 monthly and that's for unlimited classes . Is that right ?

Speaker 2 24:58

That's correct .

Speaker 4 24:59

And you also get access to both facilities in Surf City and , obviously , in Sneedsbury .

Speaker 1 25:03

And the women's class is $75 monthly and you can you offer makeups and I have a note here about children .

Speaker 4 25:12

Yeah , so we provide childcare . That's an option . It's an additional $20 per child per month on top of your tuition . That's no excuses thing . We provide the child watch three days a week , as great at headquarters .

Speaker 1 25:26

And your youth class is $75 monthly and that's two times per week .

Speaker 4 25:31

Yep with the option of open mat , and you can also train at both facilities with a coach's approval If you're a youth student . If you're an adult , you may go to both facilities without permission .

Speaker 1 25:44

Okay , do you take vacationers ? Do you take people who are here just temporarily ?

Speaker 4 25:49

How do you work that out ? Yeah , so we have a seven day visitor pass . We actually get a lot of visitors , obviously , because we're at the beach and people are vacationing and they want to continue training when they're in town . So the seven day visitor pass is $70 and that's unlimited to all the classes and both facilities . If you're an adult , we also have just drop-ins . So if you just want to hit one class , then those are $15 per class .

Women’s Group

Speaker 1 26:21

Bianca , let's talk about your women's group .

Speaker 4 26:23

Yeah , the ladies group is phenomenal . I always say I lead them , I teach them , but it's like somebody picked all of them up and dropped them in the same place and was like you guys are gonna get along great and everything's gonna be amazing . They are so strong and they work so hard in class and I am just very honored to lead them .

Speaker 1 26:45

Is it just one class that you have ? That's for the women only .

Speaker 4 26:48

So the class is three times a week . It's Monday , wednesdays and Fridays from 9.30 to 11 and with the women's membership you're allowed to trade out if you miss a class . So if you miss , like a Wednesday class , you can go to the Wednesday adult co-ed class and that way there's no excuses for you not to get to class . But the age range we have from 18 to 50 , right ? Now and it's flowing very well . Like everyone , has good challenging partners .

Speaker 1 27:17

They don't come three days a week , they just come . They do come three days a week .

Speaker 4 27:20

They come three days a week . Yeah .

Speaker 2 27:23

There are some very dedicated ladies . Not all of them can make it three days a week . They might only come twice , but those ladies are very dedicated .

Speaker 1 27:30

Wow , okay , how many in that ?

Speaker 4 27:31

class Right now I average 14 to 16 but , like Tulsa said , like they are very dedicated , they train hard . We're not sitting around in that class . They are definitely something to come watch , so if you wanna come by , you would be very impressed by them .

Speaker 1 27:46

I always . Will they mind if someone who's not in there doing it is sitting on the sidelines and watching ? Or do I have to get in there and do it ? No , can you tell I'm scared .

Speaker 4 27:55

No , they'll probably try to invite you on the mat . They're all very welcoming and their positivity and motivation is unmeasurable , and I really mean that . So they wouldn't mind if you wanted to sit and come watch . Not at all , they would probably try to get you on the mat . Are they all different levels ? We have white belts and blue belts and , yeah , they're all on the journey right now .

Speaker 1 28:17

And you just pair them up based on their skill level .

Speaker 4 28:19

No , the way classes typically ran you have warmups , you have drills and then a technique is taught . You drill that technique with a partner and then at the end of class you have the opportunity to spar that technique at like 100% right , and that's something you have to talk to your partner about . Hey , do you wanna go 50% ? Whatever you gotta advocate for yourself . But no , there's no separating people . I mean , everybody rolls with everybody . If you don't have rounded sparring sessions , then you're never challenged .

Speaker 2 28:48

Yeah , and that's one thing I think with all the classes kids , adults , the ladies class is having those well-rounded partners . They say you should have three types of partners in Jiu Jitsu to make yourself better . You should have someone who's better than you that beats you all the time . You should have someone that you're better than that you get to beat because you build your confidence . And then you should have someone who matches you , that really challenges you to force you to grow .

Speaker 4 29:11

Well , professor Fredson always says it like this we do have promotional ranking and stuff right , but he always says a bell is just to tie your gi with . And he tells us when he comes for seminars , he tells us to all the students don't think , because you got this belt on , you have this belt on that , you're better than anybody , because somebody's going to come through the door and they're going to be working harder than you . So you know , you got to respect lower ranks , respect your higher ranking people , because bell doesn't mean anything . And that's where that humbleness comes in . On the mat , you might think you're the best at something and you get humbled really fast and you're like oh , I got to go back to work , I need to work on this , yeah . So also , I think with anybody that wants to try Jiu Jitsu or wants to come in to the ladies class , all the time I get asked what's it going to be like ? People are intimidated , things like that , and you're not going to know until you come in and try . But it is absolutely not like what you're going to like . Look on YouTube . You're looking at competition style Jiu Jitsu . People are going at 100% . But that is not what we're doing .

Speaker 4 30:13

You come through the door , everyone started at a beginner level , so every lady's going to treat you properly and help you through steps and then after a couple of weeks you can opt to spar . You don't have to do these things , but it's more about just learning the art and just going through the journey . That's a common question I get asked and women come in and they're so nervous and they're like I don't know why I waited so long . So I will definitely say don't wait . And if you don't want to try the ladies class , you can also go to the adult co-ed class . We have plenty of higher belts in that class and no male or female in that class is going to just say , hey , nice to meet you , can I fight you ? It's not going to go like that , but that is a common misconception .

Speaker 4 30:53

We also do workouts Mondays and Wednesdays before our ladies class . That's an option . So we work out from nine to about 9.25 . And this is just for you to really get some speed and agility to your jiu-jitsu . We're basically training our hearts , our body , to match what we want to do on the mats and that has to start somewhere . So we're getting our breathing going , all those things . But it's an option . It's not something you have to do .

Speaker 2 31:21

So just to speak on the ladies class I started the ladies class back in 2017 . I was the only instructor and I had a great group of ladies . The problem is I'm a guy and it is intimidating . Bianca has taken over this ladies class and not just created an awesome environment , but she's created a whole tribe and these ladies are a phenomenal group of ladies . There has been two that have been extremely pregnant and still come to class and try Really and Forgot about that .

Speaker 4 31:50

Yeah , we have one right now . She is seven months pregnant and she what ? Oh yeah , she's funny . She'll say take it easy on me , and then she's not taking it easy on you . We're like we all laugh though about it , because we all just let her do whatever she wants .

Speaker 2 32:06

So she's created a wonderful tribe and that's due to her persistence and she doesn't take it easy on them but she definitely loves them and creates this wonderful environment that , even if it's a first time lady coming into the class , that they're welcome and that starts with the instructor . So I just want to say that about her as an individual and then the class as a whole , because those ladies there's no bad seeds in there . What I mean by that is there's not anyone in there trying to prove something over anyone else . There's no one in there trying to hurt another one . They're always trying to help each other and they are at different skill sets and some of them have been training for a few years . Some of them just started a couple of weeks ago .

Speaker 2 32:49

And , like she said , the age range but they don't even put that into consideration when they're training with each other . You can have 40-year-old lady training with the 18 , 19-year-old lady and they treat it exactly the same . There's no age barrier , there's no size barrier , there's no skill barrier . Everyone is wonderful . And even for the ladies when they come to the co-ed classes a lot of times it's intimidating because we have a lot of young Marines but being developed in the ladies class and then coming to one of our night classes . They may be a little reluctant to train with certain people but there's a sense of confidence to where they're not so afraid or intimidated that they don't even step on the mats . And that's pretty huge to be able to do that , to go from a ladies class and then come do a regular night class . For the first time I've seen ladies come in and they just love it .

Speaker 4 33:37

Yeah , and that goes back to that individual journey . I have a few ladies that have some trauma in their past and what I mean by that is they don't really like to be touched and it freaks them out and triggers them to be on their backs or freaks them out for someone to put an arm around their neck or something and obviously these are private conversations that I have with my students and for them to even take that step and if they've been training for a few years , there's no way that they are not deserving just because they don't compete or are not the best athlete in the room , it is definitely an individual journey .

Competitions, Tournaments, Pro Fights

Speaker 1 34:16

Let's talk about your competitions a little bit . Y'all were heading to a competition .

Speaker 4 34:21

We were going to a competition and he was going to . It was a super fight .

Speaker 2 34:25

Yeah , there's several different organizations that put together tournaments and super fights . So the way that a typical tournament works is just like it sounds . It's a tournament , so you have bracketing and it's done by age and weight division and skill level . So white belts are going to compete with white belts , blue belts with blue belts , so on and so forth . The tournament style is a bracketing style . If you win , you move on , if you lose , then you don't , and then at the end you have first , second , third place , all of those types of things .

Speaker 2 34:51

The other style of a tournament is a super fight , and a super fight is a preset match that is just going to be one match and it's win or lose , and the super fights are not always in a specific format . It might be at the end of a tournament . The ones that we have been doing , we've actually been doing pro shows , so both of us and a couple of our students have been fortunate enough to be invited to these pro events , and the pro events are typically like a Saturday night People pay for tickets to come in , there's an elevated stage , it's one match at a time , so all the lights are on you . It's a really cool .

Speaker 1 35:28

It's like a UFC fight .

Speaker 2 35:29

Yes , yes , something like that . So at the black belt level and the brown belt level , it's a 10 minute match and submission only , and that's the format that we've been doing . And , like she said , I've done five now and I've been invited to one in St Louis on September 30th .

Speaker 1 35:47

Is it by invitation only at the pro level ?

Speaker 2 35:49

It is by invitation . Typically what happens when they're looking for whatever belt range , they'll reach out to different academies . So they reached out to me as the academy owner in the black belt and invited me to this show . And then sometimes they'll ask me specifically do I have a blue belt ? That is 165 pounds , and if I do have someone , then we'll see if they can match that up for a fight for them and the 16 year old that we have . I took him to Kansas City with me last month to do his first pro show .

Speaker 4 36:20

How did he do ?

Speaker 2 36:21

He did phenomenal .

Speaker 4 36:22

Did he really ?

Speaker 2 36:23

He did , he did , he dominated the entire match and won .

Speaker 1 36:26

His name is Kai Smith , kai Smith , hi Kai . Congratulations .

Speaker 2 36:31

And Kai has been with us for two years . He started coming to us when he was 14 and about four months ago he wanted to do an MMA fight and unfortunately he's a minor , so no one will sanction an MMA fight for him . But I was able to get him a pro show for Jiu Jitsu and he told me he wants to focus on Jiu Jitsu and take Jiu Jitsu serious and become a world champion .

Speaker 1 36:54

So that's what we're working towards In it to win it .

Speaker 2 36:56

That's awesome .

Speaker 1 36:57

I'm glad to hear that you mentioned youth competition .

Speaker 2 37:01

Yes , so we do several different , like I said , the different tournament styles . So we do a lot of youth competitions and we actually have a good group of kids and parents that travel . They go to Charlotte or Raleigh or Myrtle Beach , Wilmington we just did one in Wilmington last month . They travel all over , make a weekend out of it and it's really cool . We have some kids who are really good at Jiu Jitsu and they take it very seriously and when they do competitions they typically win when they take it seriously and then some of them are first time competitors and that's pretty cool too to see some kids go out there and conquer their fear .

Speaker 1 37:32

Yeah , they're braver than I am . Say that

How Jiu Jitsu Mimics Life/Mat Therapy

Speaker 1 37:39

when I was talking to you in the pre interview phone call , you talked about how Jiu Jitsu mimics life . Can you tell me about that ?

Speaker 4 37:48

Yeah , so for me and I can only speak from my perspective but I think if you train Jiu Jitsu , you understand life can be really chaotic and it can be stressful or it could be really great , but whatever that is , especially as adults we can't always freak out when these things are happening because we have no control right . All we can do is control ourselves . And Jiu Jitsu , for me , really mimics life because when you find yourself always in a storm on the mat , you're sparring , it's all this craziness and you have to stay calm in that and you have to trust , give the trust , the technique . You have to trust that moment will pass and there'll be an open window and you'll take advantage and things will get better . And I notice , if I have a lot going on in my life when I'm training on the mats , I don't think about any of that .

Speaker 4 38:37

So Jiu Jitsu kind of has this little secret sauce . When you're sparring you don't think about anything else . And I actually asked someone the other day I was like , do you notice that ? Like you don't think about anything else , you're in the moment and you're just playing mind chess , you're just processing and all that worry and all that , whatever it is going on for people individually goes away and then , after you're done training , you have a healthy chemical release . There's something about being able to fight people and then be okay with it and smile .

Speaker 1 39:06

It sounds very therapeutic . I mean , it is like a you get to escape what's out there while you're in here doing this thing and bettering yourself and training , and it sounds like it's therapy a little bit .

Speaker 2 39:17

We call it mat therapy .

Speaker 1 39:18

Mat therapy .

Speaker 3 39:20

Kind of physical meditation .

Speaker 4 39:22

Yeah , you have to deal , you have to problem solve . You have to stay calm in the storm . You can't you can't get up and run away . It's the person's right there like on top of you , and you have to slow things down and really trust in your abilities

Substance Abuse Counseling and Trauma

Speaker 4 39:35

.

Speaker 1 39:35

And you have a background in substance abuse counseling .

Speaker 4 39:39

Yeah , so I got my substance abuse counseling certification in 2018 . And for me , I grew up with a substance abuse past . I was a young girl and took wrong turns and put myself in situations I should have never been in and you know , as an adult , I wanted to really bring that back around and really serve those people who don't have outlets .

Speaker 1 40:03

Do you find that the women in particular that come into your class are coming because they've been through something that they feel like they never want to find themselves in again . They've been attacked in some physical way and so now they're here like I'm going to make sure that never happens again . Do you hear that often ? Or it's not brought up .

Speaker 4 40:23

So that's yes , but that's not just the ladies class .

Speaker 2 40:26

Oh really .

Speaker 4 40:27

There are a lot of men that come from a lot of trauma as well , and I definitely want to highlight that . You have men who are not supposed to speak up about things and they work all day , they provide and they show up after work and they show up and train . I definitely think that Jujitsu is the secret handshake . Most people , when they come and train , they are looking to release something . We're a family at Groundstone . Everybody is trying to help one another . We're also challenging one another , but we definitely relate to people because we've been through struggles . Gotcha

Tulsa History

Speaker 4 41:04

.

Speaker 1 41:08

Thank you , tulsa , for your service , because I want to let everyone know that you retired from the Marine Corps after 20 years .

Speaker 2 41:16

I did 20 years and six months . Yes , thank you . So I started out as an AAV mechanic and then I did the warren officer program in 2010 . And once I became a warren officer , I was a ordnance maintenance vehicle officer . I spent three years in Okinawa as a maintenance officer and then I did the rest of my time here at Camp Lejeune .

Speaker 3 41:34

Now when I was in they called it Line , now they call it McMap , marine Corps Marshal Arch Program . Was there any connection between your Jujitsu now and that ?

Speaker 2 41:44

So yes and no . So when I started , when I went to boot camp in my first couple of years as a Marine , we did line training as well , and when it changed over to McMap , I actually became a McMap instructor right away and I worked my way up through the McMap rankings to Black Belt and continued to be an instructor for 13 years and the McMap program really introduced me to grappling . I've dabbled in nine different martial arts since I was 10 , 11 years old , but most of them were striking arts Muay Thai , boxing , karate I started with Thai Kwan Do different things like that . So when we started the McMap program I was very familiar with a lot of the things , but I was not familiar with the ground fighting . Once I was introduced to ground fighting , that kind of changed what I thought martial arts was , and then when I was introduced to Jujitsu , I forgot about everything else and I didn't want to be punched in the face anymore . So Jujitsu really took over as my passion .

Ego, Strong Sense of Family and Community

Speaker 2 42:36

On your website .

Speaker 1 42:38

I noticed you said kindly remove your ego , and I just love that and part of what you have on the website . I'm just going to read just a little bit of it here . It says fight isn't one using your ego . And we believe that Jujitsu is more than just a physical discipline . It is a mental and spiritual transformation through the art of self-defense and self-awareness , and I just I don't know that just resonates with me so much and I think that it would going back to being humble on the mat .

Speaker 1 43:07

I think that's something that is another benefit , an added thing that you can learn , not just the discipline of it , but going in there and learning to let that ego go . It affects all of us on the daily and I also noticed on your website that you said we are shaping a cornerstone for the community that we will support through motivation , accepting all and adapting to our community's needs , and I know that y'all do a strong outreach with the community . You do . You make me feel like in the Jujitsu community and also in groundstone , you're breeding a very powerful sense of community and I love that . Talking about the bullying that we were discussing earlier , one of the things that got me noticing your Facebook page in particular was I saw your groundstone Facebook picture . There was a Spider-Man costume . I was like what is going on ?

Speaker 1 43:55

And then I went looking through and I noticed that you were just supporting a different Jujitsu gym up in a different state , where some kid got bullied and they just reached out and said that he loved super superheroes . And so they just reached out and so many of the Brazilian Jujitsu gyms were just supporting a complete stranger and you all got dressed up and you posted those pictures on Facebook .

Speaker 1 44:15

It was such a beautiful picture , it was such a beautiful effort that everybody made to a complete stranger . And I also want to talk about how , as far as the sense of community that you're creating , can each of you talk a little bit about how you are working with the town of North Topsle Beach employees and what you're offering them ? And then I also want to touch on the blue Jujitsu , which I think is wonderful .

Speaker 4 44:45

Thank you , we both love Tujitsu , like , when it comes down to competition and going hard . We can do that all day , but life in the end is about service to others and we both share that . We want to be able to adapt to community needs , because that's what it's about Groundstone when we say like is a home to all who enter , it really is true . We want to help . We want people to grow . We definitely try to help out in the community as much as we can . As far as the town of North Topsle Beach , they reached out to us and they asked if all of their employees could receive a percentage off , because they wanted to promote health and wellness to their employees , which made sense . That's great , yeah . So they get 10% off and you just have to show your ID if you work for the town of North Topsle Beach

Blue Jiu Jitsu

Speaker 4 45:29

.

Speaker 4 45:29

And we also sponsor all local law enforcement and local fire department and basically we sponsor you . Until you're a blue bell , you don't pay a tuition . When you come , you do pay the academy fee , which is $45 . That is an affiliation fee , but after that you don't pay a tuition until your blue bell . So average time you're looking at about 24 months and we just do that one , because we call on these people to help us . So why not equip our own local first responders to be able to have that training and know how to defend themselves , because they're obviously in a lot of bad positions a lot of the time ?

Speaker 1 46:03

I love that . I think that's wonderful .

Speaker 2 46:05

Yeah . So I'll talk about the blue jiu jitsu just a little bit . We offer this class at the surf city location on Thursday nights and we decided to do this because we know there's a need for law enforcement and really first responders . So , just as she was saying , we sponsor their tuition . We also know that there's a need just for law enforcement in general . So we started this blue jiu jitsu because I want them to learn jiu jitsu , but I want them to know how to apply it for what they're doing . They're not going to do tournament style jiu jitsu , competition style jiu jitsu on the street when they're trying to arrest someone with the duty belt on and a vest on . So how do they apply these techniques and use them effectively to protect themselves and protect the people around them ?

Speaker 2 46:43

There has been a lot of bad publicity on social media for police officers not handling suspects correctly . You've had several instances where people have died from things being done incorrectly , people getting shot when they shouldn't A lot of those things . So how can we help serve the community and make our place a little bit safer ? So that was what we came up with . Also , one of my coaches helps me run this class and he's a retired law enforcement officer , so he helps me understand how to apply this to their job specifically , and we have a good group .

Speaker 2 47:13

We open it up to the fire department as well because we know in our area A lot of times the fire department is going to be the first responder . How do they handle certain people ? If they show up to a location and someone is non-compliant or maybe intoxicated because we are a tourist area , how do they handle themselves without getting hurt or somebody else getting hurt ? And if they understand Jiu Jitsu and how to control their bodies and the other person's body without punching or kicking or doing something that's violent , how do we do this to make everybody a little bit safer ?

Speaker 1 47:41

Okay , I like that from both sides . I think it's a really wonderful thing that you're doing and is it popular ? Are they taking you up on this amazing offer ?

Speaker 2 47:50

I wish we could have all of the law enforcement officers in the area there every Thursday , but we do have a good group of guys who come in on a regular basis . Mostly we have surf CDPD that attend . We also have Marine Patrol and some local county guys who have come in . So we've had a few different organizations .

Speaker 4 48:09

Okay , and just to clarify , the Blue Jiu Jitsu class in surf city is strictly for local law enforcement . So they could have the discretion in class to ask questions and really say , hey , I was in this situation or what about this , and they would have all of the instructors attention . However , that does not mean that they cannot come to any of the other classes and they can still go to an adult co-ed class and Sneeds Ferry . They can still go to an adult class in surf city , but that class is specific to just local law enforcement .

Speaker 1 48:41

Gotcha

Final Thoughts

Speaker 1 48:42

Okay . Is there anything that you just really want the listeners to know , whether it's just about you as a couple or individuals , or just about groundstone .

Speaker 4 48:50

A lot of people think when you join any type of martial arts , like if you're not going 100% , like I can't do that , you individual journey . You don't have to train that way . Get the skill , get the technique , Just like if you're learning to play an instrument , don't quit before you learn a song , at least take something away from it .

Speaker 2 49:08

I think the biggest thing is we would want people to know that we are a family ran business . We are a martial arts academy , but we don't want people to be deterred by saying that because our team , our family , is a great environment for anyone beginners , if you've never done martial arts , it's a great place to come and we have great people in our academy that help cultivate each other . So , just being a very family oriented environment , whether it's kids or adult classes , I think if someone wants to do any type of martial arts , whether it's Jiu Jitsu or anything else , we have provided a good environment for them to come in as a first timer

Contact Informations

Speaker 2 49:43

Awesome .

Speaker 1 49:44

Okay , I want to give out the contact and location information .

Speaker 4 49:47

Yeah , so locations are 1031 Old Folkestone Road in Sneets Ferry , north Carolina , zip code is 28460 , and then in Surf City it's 116 unit A , charlie Medlin Drive . We are basically behind Salty Turtle , that's everybody . Yeah , that's where they know all the shops are . We are back there and then our website is wwwgroundstonebjjcom and if you want to inquire about classes or get any information , you can email us at groundstonebjjyahoo or you can call or text area code 910-915-4231 . Perfect .

Speaker 1 50:27

All right , thank you , listeners . Thank you for joining me . I want to say thank you to my co-host , michael this has been fun . And I want to say thank you to Tulsa and Bianca . I know that getting you on this schedule has been difficult and I really appreciate you coming in here and doing this with us , so thank you no , thank you for inviting us .

Speaker 2 50:45

Thank you so much for having us Awesome .

Speaker 1 50:48

Hey , thank you for joining me today on Topsoil Insider . If you

Topsail Insider Closing

Speaker 1 50:52

liked today's episode , please hit the follow or subscribe button so that you can get the Topsoil Insider podcast delivered automatically to whichever podcast platform you're listening on . And if you're a business owner and you wish to set up a free interview or you want to advertise , please email me at topsoilinsider at gmailcom . Please also find and like the Topsoil Insider Facebook page . I provide links to the new podcast there each week , as well as providing photos of the businesses that I'm highlighting , along with any of their upcoming events . So , hey , let's do this again next week . I'll see you around Topsoil .